Hi! I haven't written for MSCL before, so I hope it doesn't suck too badly. This was written for a contest and the prompt was to only use 10 adverbs. I failed, but I like the story anyway, and I hope you do, too.
Brian Krakow stared at the list of vocabulary words he was supposed to be teaching to Jordan Catalano. Brian was getting extremely tired of tutoring Jordan, even if he was making amazing progress. Maybe if Jordan wasn't so involved in his intense relationship with Angela Chase, it would be OK. But it wasn't OK. He looked at Jordan's vocabulary list, searching for a word that matched his feelings toward this activity. Laborious sounded just right.
Brian and Angela, well, they had a moment recently. In all his teenage years, he hadn't even come close to feeling the way he did when Angela looked at him--like she was looking at him in a completely different way--when she found out he had written that beautiful letter instead of Jordan.
Ah, the letter. He wrote her a letter expressing every thought, every feeling he'd ever had for her, and there were many. And she liked the letter. It made her happy. Except she thought it was from Jordan, and Jordan never had the heart to deny it, and now Brian didn't want to tutor the guy anymore.
Jordan walked in, interrupting Brian's inner monologue.
"Can we make this quick? I'm taking Angela to the movies later, man." Jordan grinned, his eyes twinkling salaciously.
Brian felt a pang of anger. He knew Jordan didn't quite have the best intentions in mind for Angela, and the thought of Jordan taking advantage of her made him crazy.
"Yeah, whatever. Katimski wants you to go over these adverbs and use them in a sentence," Brian said, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice. He knew Jordan might not be the most book smart guy in the world, but he did know how to read people. Brian knew this because he was the exact opposite.
Jordan looked over the list of words, confusion in his red-rimmed eyes. Brian was aware he'd never know the things Jordan Catalano had been through in his life. Ricky Vasquez confided in Brian that Jordan was from a broken home. Jordan also had dyslexia, and school was a chore for him. Still, Brian couldn't help his raging jealousy. Jordan was attractive in a James Dean "I'm a loner" kind of way, and the ladies liked that. He was a guitar player and sang in a band. This was also popular among the ladies. It seemed like everything that Brian found to be impossible was just second nature to Jordan. Like going out with Angela, for one thing.
"OK, uh, how about this," Jordan said, furrowing his brow. "She tenderly runs her fingers through my hair while we make out in the boiler room."
Brian snorted.
"OK, that's good. Do the next one."
Jordan looked at the word and frowned at it. He looked in the dictionary for the definition. Brian would say one thing about Jordan--his thirst for knowledge was impressive.
"OK, OK. She likes how he lives his life so contumaciously; how he's disobedient and rebellious towards everything but her."
Brian wasn't sure how to feel about that one. He was pretty sure he wasn't happy about it, though. It was one thing to go through life like Jordan and not care about impressing people or getting the highest grades, and then he gets the girl. Brian was not going to get the girl, and he was all of the above.
It wasn't fair.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's good. How about this one..he stared at the clueless guy in front of him bellicosely."
Jordan frowned. Brian wondered if he went too far. He knew he did when Jordan actually looked up the word in the dictionary. When he was done, he looked at Brian, looking strangely hurt.
"What is it with you, Brain?" He asked, using his favorite nickname for his tutor. "I come in here, and I want to learn so I can be better...for her. I want to understand all these fancy words she uses. I want to be able to talk to her mom and dad without sounding like the loser they think I am. Why do you have to have it out for me, man? What is it with you?"
Brian didn't answer. He didn't have to. Jordan knew the answer, he was sure of it. Jordan probably knew since the beginning.
"OK, look, I get it. I know what this is about and I get it. Man...I told her the letter was from you," Jordan said softly. "She said she knew. She told me she knew all along, that you pretty much told her, and she was OK with that. We had a pretty big fight about it, but...well, it turned out to be OK. Sorry, Brain."
"I don't think I can do this anymore," Brian said, this time not bother to try to keep the frustration out of his voice. "I can't come here every day and make you smarter for her. It's impossible."
He didn't want Jordan's sympathy. He didn't even want Angela's sympathy, and he'd been in love with her for God knows how long. All he wanted was to forget about both of them and move on with his life. Not that it could ever happen like that. No, Angela Chase was too memorable for that.
"Look, man, I apologize to you...apologetically. But I love her, Brain. She's not perfect. She's like that poem that Katimski read in class, about his mistress' eyes being nothing like the sun. Her eyes don't sparkle, but they're beautiful to me, you know?" Jordan sighed. Brian could tell he was pretty much spent. Jordan hadn't talked to him this much the entire time they'd been working together. Brian decided to give him a break.
"I get it. You're in love, that's cool. Good luck with that. Really. Here, you study these, and I'll work on my math homework, OK?"
Jordan nodded. "Sure, man. I'm glad we had this talk."
And when Angela came by to get Jordan so he could take her home, Brian watched the way they looked at each other, like the sun was shining just for them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Angela look at Brian the way she did now that she knew he wrote the letter--curiously. That was his secret. That was how he was able to sleep at night knowing the girl he loved was with someone else. Angela was curious. She had doubts about Jordan. It wasn't everything, but it was something, and that was enough for him...for now.